


Best For Us

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Angst, F/M, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-12
Updated: 2012-09-12
Packaged: 2017-11-14 02:53:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/510545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barbara makes the decision for them</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best For Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kayim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayim/gifts).



> Set against the missing year after Infinite Crisis, but disregarding 52 and further canon. In other words, this is what I think should have happened after the Crisis.

Barbara had known this moment was coming for far longer than she wanted to admit. One way or another, they had to move on. "Dick… you need to leave."

He looked at her with shock in his eyes, shock that slowly turned to the hurt of a boy losing his world all over again. She steeled herself; they could not keep doing this, always falling together when the world broke down around them, but moving on when things got better. No, she had to make him see his path and hers weren't healthy when they tied them too close together.

"You're strong enough to go. Find Bruce, find Tim, share their search for themselves. Or go find your own. Stay in Gotham to help Harvey or go back to New York, San Francisco… anywhere."

"Why…"

"Dick, this isn't… this isn't good for you or me." Barbara wheeled herself a little closer, reaching up to push his tears away as they began to fall. "We love each other, and I don't think that will ever change. But the only time we ever seem able to remember it is when we both hit rock-bottom." She leaned in to kiss him. "Go."

He hesitated, still hurting inside from all the changes, from his near suicidal impulse to protect Bruce, from his life being without any anchors at all. "Why can't it be enough?" he asked her, voice raw and scraped from the bottom of his soul.

Barbara closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I don't know. Too alike, too different, too… us?" She opened her eyes back to see him staring at her face, searching. He must have found it, because he turned his face, kissed her hand, and rose.

"We have each other. Just not all the ways we thought," he said.


End file.
